Feeding back

Here’s a selection of the mind opening feedback I received from my peers during my presentation of my work.

“When you first started talking it seemed to me that you were kind of trying to use all of these different practises to discover and find out … about yourself personally and some of those things were about finding about your surroundings, and it felt like you were purposefully putting yourself into different situations to in order to, almost like an ethnographer going in to experience, to draw out not only from that situation but also from yourself”.

“You said you wanted to fuse your practises into one, but why?”

“You’re already doing those things, carrying on doing what you’re already doing is probably exactly what you should be doing”.

“They are all you, so in a sense they are one practise cause they’re all coming from you. I would have said conceptually there’s a thread that’s running through all those ways of manifesting that practise. There’s nothing wrong with playing with all those”.

“When you’re doing printing making a print making project you don’t stop being a musician in any way. That’s still a part of you. Just the same as when you were sitting there playing that wonderful song, it didn’t make you any less of a print artist, it didn’t make you any less of the other”.

“You’re Anna, and Anna’s memory keeps stuff and things connect”.

“You said ‘My dream is to become a singer.’ To become a singer. Aren’t you already a singer?”

“If you don’t have an exhibition does that make you less of an artist? If you’re not having a gig does that make you any less of a singer?”

“It’s interesting we’re all constructing you in one way, and when we’re offering stuff it’s like your replying ‘no I’m not’ and it’s really interesting that we can see that thread but you’re not seeing that thread”.

“I was just thinking that it’s very interesting cause the way you’re exploring like yourself, your identity, your practise.. at the same time you’re exploring the one of others”.

“You’re giving all this ‘oh this is me, this is Anna’ but and the same time you’re you know, you’re employing that critical pedagogy”.

“Just enjoy it and do it”.

“We all have these ideas of what it means to be something, what it means to be a singer and what it means to be an artist and what it means to be a teacher. It’s all in there and it’s very easy to say no I’m not those things”.

“I can still be a singer if I’m not standing up in front of lots of people, or I can still be an artist if I’m not exhibiting in a gallery”.

“Which I think you do really well. You know I would love to be that talented. It’s like you’re playing a game of twister but you’re just not gonna fall down”.

“What would be the difference between singer and Anna who sings?”

(Me) “I’m still really attached to this dream”.

“So when you were smaller, you obviously saw someone performing .. you’re comparing what you’re doing and how you’re being to that”.

(Me) “I’ve had really incredible experiences performing … that’s like the most bliss feeling I’ve experienced, and so I guess I also want to continue to explore that and that’s what I kind of I’m in search of”.